Riding Tips: braking “backwards”
May 24th, 2010 by Leo
Braking is difficult to improve. Most people develop an intuitive sense for straightening up and not locking the wheels, but still…even under a controlled setting, most of us would have trouble keeping up (or down) with the braking distance of a typical sedan with ABS. And because the act of braking is so time sensitive, most of it happens subconsciously. Advice like “don’t lock the rear brake” is good and true, but of little help when a real braking situation arises. Most people (including myself) get around this by planning ahead and making sure there aren’t any braking emergencies to worry about. This is what I recommended. But wouldn’t it be great to have a finely tuned braking ability? How can you improve skills that are…mostly subconscious?” It has to do with braking “backwards…”
Most people brake “backwards”… we start with a light touch on the brakes and as the stopping point gets closer we squeeze harder on the brakes. This is how most people drive cars, and this is how most people brake on motorcycles. We like it because it shifts your weight gradually forward as you progressively increase the braking…and normally there are no noticeable downsides to doing this… The problem is, because this “backwards” braking becomes deeply etched into your brain, and when an emergency braking situation comes up, this kind of braking won’t cut it. You will be too light on the brakes in the beginning, and too hard on the brakes as you near collision.
The better way is like this: once the bike is upright, you can brake fully with ONE squeeze (a constant level pressure on the lever) that will allow you to stop in the given distance. And instead of squeezing harder as you approach a stop, you can do the opposite and lighten your braking as your stopping point gets closer.
So here’s the drill: whereas most people see the stop light ahead and start with gradual braking, increasing as the light approaches; try this… Straighten up and squeeze enough of the brakes (not so abruptly as to upset the bike, but quickly) to allow you to come to a complete stop without squeezing any further on the brake. Instead of gradual braking, you can make a single braking input; and instead of gradually adding more braking, you can gradually lessen braking as you roll closer to your stopping point. If you do this properly, your braking won’t feel any more abrupt than backwards braking.
“What’s the point of this? It feel unnatural, and it’s more to think about, why not just brake the old way?” By learning to make just one braking input, your brain is relearning how to brake in an emergency. So that in an emergency braking situation, instead of wasting time gradually braking, you are letting the brakes work to their limit much sooner, shortening the braking distance. And instead of teaching your brain to focus on gradually increasing braking, you’re training your subconscious to focus on gradually easing off the brakes to keep the wheels from locking up. And by making this the way you brake at every single stop, you reinforce and recalibrate your brain’s ability to quickly do the math and calculate how much to squeeze the lever to stop the bike in time.
Have any more braking tips? Share the wealth in the comments section!
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I’d driven for nearly 30 years, that is, up I moved to the city last summer. Sold the car and bought a bike, but after reading your article, I realized I need to practice reverse breaking. What a great tip and even better website.
Thanks Peter!
It gets me psyched when I hear people consciously work on riding skills – not just for safety reasons – for me the challenge of improving my technique is a big part of what makes riding fun…
Hey Leo,
I read your blog often and agree with most of your tips, but I think this this one is a bad idea. There’s a very good reason to start braking lightly and then increase pressure! It takes a split second from initiating braking until weight transfers to the front wheel, and until the weight gets onto the wheel the traction for hard braking just isn’t available. A good solid squeeze on the front brake might be fine under controlled conditions, but let a jolt of panic into the system and guaranteed you will squeeze harder than you intend and then locking the front wheel becomes far more likely if this is the method you have trained yourself to use. Front end slides are very difficult to recover from under the best conditions, let alone in an emergency when you need every inch for stopping. The reflex you need to get trained in for a panic stop is not one solid “grab,” it’s more “squeeze – wait a beat – squeeze increasingly harder.” By ramping the squeeze up you end up being able to squeeze much harder at the end and put much more braking force into the ground. I started riding in the late 80s, nobody taught me anything other than the location of the brake, throttle, and clutch. My worst crash was a front brake mistake – too much, too soon, and I was down before I knew it. I didn’t know how to get the rear wheel off the ground… whenever I tried to stoppie I would just slide the front wheel, no matter how brave I got by increasing speed or squeezing harder. Then, after about 20 years of riding, I finally took some classes – Lee Parks Total Control, Sportbike Track Time novice class – and I learned how to brake properly. I do braking drills in a parking lot at least twice a season. My stopping distances have dropped dramatically, I can now hoist a stoppie at will, I can brake to the limit in the rain, and I’m totally comfortable hauling a superbike down from 150 miles per hour with the back wheel just skimming the pavement. More importantly, I’m relaxed the whole time, and I’m in control of how much pressure I modulate into the system. I can watch the pavement in an emergency and decrease pressure if the road gets patchy or the front is about to slide, or let off the brake entirely to swerve, then bring it back on again smoothly and keep shedding speed.
You say braking is hard to improve, but it’s like every other aspect of riding a motorcycle. First you need to learn the proper technique, then you need to do drills until it becomes muscle memory, then you need to practice, practice, practice. Braking and throttle are two areas that hold so much room for control, finesse, and smoothness and pay off huge dividends in safety (and speed if we’re talking track time) when they are done right.
Thanks for a cool blog!
-abe
Hi Abe,
Thanks for your comment!
I actually don’t recommend people just giving the front brake a good solid squeeze every time they get to a stop… I agree it takes time to learn get control over the front brake lever – and learning to brake at the threshold requires good lever control.
What I’m proposing is to help develop that lever control and a feel for braking when it’s not an emergency situation – by using *even* braking throughout the stop – as opposed to what we naturally tend to do (which is brake too lightly in the first few seconds, and too much in the last seconds before a stop).
I think people usually panic (and lock the wheel) under braking not at the moment they start braking – but as they get closer to hitting something. If one were to get more of the braking done earlier, with good lever control and a constant level of braking that fits the distance and traction, there’s less need to panic.
Anyway – kudos on your mad skillz! And for continuing to practice and get training – that’s what all the rest of us need!
>by using *even* braking throughout the stop
But, by doing this you are actually training yourself to do the wrong thing in an emergency. You can’t do one thing most of the time and then expect to do something else under stress… the training is the only way to overcome your survival reaction, and if you inadvertently trained yourself to do the wrong thing, that’s what you’ll do when you desperately need to do the right thing – which is ease into the brake for a split second, feel the pressure compress the forks and get the tire to bite down, then increase lever pressure as weight transfers.
>(which is brake too lightly in the first few seconds, and too much in the last seconds before a stop).
I guess I don’t really get this… I don’t remember if I did this when I started riding, and maybe from years of carrying passengers where it’s always a challenge to keep things smooth to keep from clacking helmets, but I tended to modulate braking at the end of the stopping to stop smoothly and stay in balance.
Maybe I’m just not understanding your description, and maybe you just mean it as an exercise to be used once in a while. In any case, it’s good advice to pay attention to how you are braking and learn variations and subtleties about how you brakes and tires work to scrub off speed.
One thing is crucial; Learn to stop in as short a distance as possible. And practice it over and over.
cheers,
-abe